Posted: Wednesday, 01 June 2016
The average fleet driver will rack up 50,000 miles in a year in their job, and no matter how good and careful one is, it is still easy to fall foul of the law and have a clean licence tainted with a penalty, endorsement or conviction. Keeping fleet driver's licences clean is - for the most part - down to the driver although there are things that you can do as a fleet operator to help your drivers stay within the law and maintain their perfect driver's licence:
Vehicle trackers, or telematics devices, are more popular than they have ever been and the advantages to fleets are plentiful – they help fleet operators reduce fuel costs by targeting drivers who are wasteful, and they can reduce insurance premiums significantly.
For licences, the benefits to trackers are that they instil a 'big brother' affect in drivers, or in other words they make fleet drivers think twice about speeding.
Licence checking is a requirement for fleets in order to meet obligations under the Road Traffic Acts and the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations, as well as to meet obligations under The Corporate Manslaughter Act. However, unless all drivers know that their licence will be subject to review regularly they may drive with disregard for traffic laws.
We recommend fleet operators educate their drivers and make them fully aware that their licences will be reviewed regularly. This way, drivers will be more careful.
Our licence checking service gives you access to all licence information, including points and convictions and endorsements, expired licences and serious offence details.
Drivers should know that in the event that they do accrue penalty points or otherwise fall foul of the law that you will take action. A 'three strikes and you're out' approach works well although gross misconduct, such as drink driving, should be punished more severely.
By making fleet drivers aware that they will be punished for poor driving, they will be less inclined to do so and unacceptable standards of driving should be punished accordingly.
All drivers get an automatic fixed penalty notice if they are caught using a handheld phone while driving – the penalty is 3 points and a £100 fine. Many fleet drivers need to be connected to HQ or customers while on the move, so we recommend you give drivers access to hands-free connectivity in vehicles so that they can communicate.
Hands-free systems usually work via bluetooth and many newer vehicles have them as standard, although they can be retrofitted by a third party cost-effectively.